The Delhi High Court today asked Arvind Kejriwal government to clarify why possession and consumption of beef was criminalised in the national capital.
Hearing a Public Interest Litigation ( PIL) that seeks to quash certain provisions of the Delhi Cattle Preservation Act criminalising beef eating, a division bench of Chief Justice G. Rohini and Justice Sangita Dhingra Sehgal asked the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government to file the response by December 8.
The PIL, filed by an NGO working for development of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, says that the the "right to eat the food of one's choice is an integral part of the right to life and liberty".
The Constitution mandates the state not to make a law towards enforcement of a particular religious practice, the plea said.
"The prohibition on possession and consumption of beef per se as under the Delhi Agricultural Cattle Preservation Act is in violation of the fundamental rights of the petitioners and other persons similarly situated as it infringes their personal liberty," it added.
(With IANS inputs)
